Since the cauldron city was a racial capital, Danika was able to portal back to Fogton, the human capital. Before taking the next portal, she ventured into a part of the city that she'd never explored.
Behind the enormous cathedral style temple that lay beside the market square, with the incongruous oriental styled deities ornamenting it, there were other large ornate buildings. She had previously assumed that the area was a temple district, with the largest one dedicated to the Jade Emperor, and the smaller buildings belonging to other deities. But actually, she had learned from the posts of other players, that the next largest building was a college. Beside the college, rose another large cathedral with domed roofs.
The dome topped building was rumored to be the largest library in "Living Jade Empire". Danika zipped up to the entrance and the doors magically opened for her. The library might have been even larger on the inside than it was on the outside. Danika couldn't be sure, but the first floor was sectioned into separated areas with a large round space in the center with a round counter surrounding it, and a dozen helpful NPCs consulting the central catalogue column for the people who lined up along the counters edge.
Danika got in line, and shortly a helpful librarian asked, "How can I assist you? Do you wish to begin the application for your first library card?"
Danika blinked and asked, "Do I need a library card to be able to read a book in the library?"
"That depends," the librarian replied cheerfully. "You may read any of the books on the first floor within the library without obtaining a library card, but if you wish to borrow a book you must have a card, and a card with the appropriate subscription level must be obtained before you can access the collections on the upper levels."
The librarian pointed upward and Danika gazed up at the many layers of balconies with book lined walls that looked down upon the library's center. Some of the nooks shimmered with nearly transparent barriers, behind which the few people visible were touching the books with white gloved hands.
"I want to look at the enchanted book that shows every creature in the game, if it's available," Danika told the librarian hopefully.
She'd asked her celestial dragon assistant on her work account, but while the little dragon could apparently list every creature currently in the game if required, it didn't seem to be capable of providing her a written list that she could access as ZipZing. It had told her reassuringly that there were over 5000 species with hair, scales, teeth, or nails within the game, so it wasn't that the druid had instructed her to find every single one.
"Enchanted books are restricted to the second floor and up, you'll need to apply for a card with at least a first level subscription in order to read such a book within the library," the librarian replied helpfully. "You'll need at least a fifth level subscription if you wish to borrow an enchanted book."
The application form was fortunately somewhat magical itself. Once she wrote in her name, a dialogue asked if she wished to list her residence in Windbur as the required residence information. Another dialogue informed her that she might receive messages from the library, but that all messages would be delivered by the official library guardian animals, the stone lions. Book returns could be done by messenger animals without the usual Karma cost of attaching an item.
Getting the first level of subscription wasn't as easy as the application. It required not a coin fee as she'd expected, but a task completed in service to the library. Since her next destination was the northwestern ocean, Danika accepted a quest to acquire squid ink.
Before she left the incredible building, she took a look at the research section of non enchanted books available on the first floor. There was a lot more available than she'd expected. There were rows and rows of encyclopedias on different subjects. Danika had heard of such large book sets before, but never actually seen them in real life. They had been replaced by digital versions for decades, or even as much as a century.
In some ways the heavy books were awkward to work with as a small dragon, but in other ways it was a fascinating experience. She found that she was glad to find that the memory of vast libraries and heavy books made of leather and paper, elaborate scrolls, and other even rarer book forms were being preserved within "Living Jade Empire".
Mindful of the quests she intended to accomplish during her two days off, Danika moved on, and returned to the portal daises. She took the portal of return to the centaur town that she'd visited before. When her reminder popped up, she took a break for lunch, but continued to fly toward the coastal city that was her next target on her phone.
The goblin port city seen from her phone looked quaint. Seen from the VR-medi pod, it looked dirty and dangerous. It felt more like a lawless pirate haven than a legitimate trading port. She wondered why the repeatable quest designer had chosen such a setting until she met the principal character in the quest.
In the corner of a low tavern lurked the scruffiest character Danika had met yet. He wasn't a goblin either, he was a sea otter, or more likely, a sea otter half. Stubbles Och'tern walked upright and wore his worn piratacle garments with a scruffy, world weary air.
His bristly face had dark clever eyes, but he was the first NPC that made Danika understand what Devon had meant about the repeatable quest NPCs seeming like puppets. He had a very limited dialogue set. He gave instructions on how to reach an island that apparently sheltered a cove full of mermaids, and he offered to trade you a pearl in exchange for a bucket of fresh oysters. The pearl was similar to the one Shrubbery had acquired from the elven Captain, in return for her help in repairing the ship, on their voyage to the north.
Stubbles gave you clear directions on where to buy the suggested tools, a special type of rake and a floating basket to collect the oysters in. But he didn't modify the information or instructions based on the type of character who had come to do the quest. ZipZing obviously wasn't going to be able to collect oysters with a human sized rake.
He also didn't explain where you could hunt for oysters, you were expected to visit the merchant who sold the tools in order to obtain that information. The quest felt very rigid, and like something from a much older game. It was obvious that the pearl that would enable a character to breathe underwater for one bell, a quarter of an hour, would be very useful to anyone planning to visit mermaids. But the quest gave no reason that you should go visit the mermaid cove, it simply informed you of its existence.
At the goblin merchant's scruffy shop, she discovered that you had to buy the rake, whether you intended to use it or not. The merchant was at least less restricted in his dialogue though, and seemed to be operating a fully functional store. With the merchant it felt more like meeting an ordinary NPC who had a script to repeat in association with certain keywords. But if you didn't follow the script, the NPC wouldn't tell you anything about the reefs where the oyster hunting was done.
There didn't seem to be any reason for the merchant to have the information about the reef either. In fact, a sea otter like Stubbles seemed much more likely to Danika to have been familiar with the local reefs. She found the discrepancies rather irritating.
Fortunately, the reef itself was fascinating.